As the opening song “Columbus Day Parade” announces: Mike Viola is on a mission. From the get-go, Viola’s upcoming release Electro De Perfecto pulls listeners in with a decidedly hot-rodded version of his acclaimed songwriting. Songs that are gloriously dark and uplifting about being lost in the maze of middle age, hungry for life as the body decays.
Recorded entirely in Southern California, Electro’s ten tracks seem to absorb the life of their urban desert surroundings. Motel melodies wash over fast food joints and pharmacies. Beach Boys-style stacked harmonies color the Bukowski-tinted lyrics. At times bright (“Soundtrack Of My Summer”), while at others boulevard-dark (“Here’s the Rub”), there is undoubtedly a triumphant thread that winds its way through the album, leading toward its centerpiece and pivotal track “El Mundo de Perfecto.”
